Rarely Done Brings Out Dark Comedy in "Dog Sees God"

Charles' Schulz's comic strip "Peanuts" was renowned for its funny, perceptive, gentle view of little kids and the world they lived in.

Not without angst and meanness, to be sure. In the world of "Peanuts," often "Aaargh!" was the only possible reaction.

Rarely Done Productions' current offering, "Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead," is a dark comedy that takes a look at the kids when they're 10 years older.

Like Schulz's strip, it's immensely funny and perceptive, but not nearly so gentle.

In both works, comedy grows out of the darkest times, but "Aaargh!" doesn't begin to fill the bill for the characters in "Dog Sees God."

The kids that played out small dramas in their back yards are now in high school, and they're called by different names. CB (Ryan Diana) still wears a zig-zag shirt and is an everyman who lacks sharp definition. Van (Jordan Glaski), who once carried a blanket, is now a pothead who put the ashes of his blanket into a pot pipe.

Marcy (Erin Race) and Tricia (Jodie Baum) used to be two sweet little girls. Now they're a couple of hard-drinking, promiscuous gals who make cruel, loud jokes at the "cool table" in the cafeteria.

You get the idea. But "Dog Sees God" isn't just a one-joke script.

In the searching treatment given by director Dan Tursi and an immensely skilled cast, it takes an honest look at adolescents at a time when a fair number of them make an effort to be as foul-mouthed, foul-minded and barbaric as they can be.

Much of the humor comes from the unexpectedness and absurdity of adolescent doings.

Like "Peanuts," however, "Dog Sees God" offers moments of redemption, and the moments are hard-earned. Each character is following a different arc to adulthood, and glimmers of decency and maturity show themselves in unexpected ways.

For example, CB visits Van's Sister (Shannon Tompkins), the former terror of the neighborhood, in the mental hospital, and they kid each other and chat comfortably like good old friends. A couple of lines remind you, though, that this was once one mean little girl.

Angela Newman does sparkling, nuanced work as CB's Sister, who really isn't like the others. She has dreams, sometimes absurd-sounding, of a metamorphosis that can't be put into words or even images.

Beethoven (Rob Fonda) still prefers the piano to human company. (And the grand piano at Jazz Central is moved on and off without fuss or noise.) Fonda creates the character as low key but much more complicated, rational and mature than the others.

The play unfolds in about 20 short vignettes, the last one with a deus ex machina in which CB at last hears back from his pen pal.

THE DETAILS:

The show: "Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead," presented by Rarely Done Productions. Seen at Wednesday's rehearsal.